


Old And Gone

by MathConcepts



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Aberforth and Grindelwald do not get along, Always, M/M, Mentioned Character Death, Other, do you still love him after all this time?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-21
Updated: 2019-03-21
Packaged: 2019-11-16 07:51:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18090365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MathConcepts/pseuds/MathConcepts
Summary: Aberforth visits Grindelwald on behalf of his brother, who cannot.





	Old And Gone

The man in the cell was old. Frail. Powerless. _Wandless._ He was no threat. But once he had been the ultimate threat to the other old man standing across from him.  
  
Aberforth Dumbledore regarded Gellert Grindelwald with clear blue eyes, and Grindelwald looked back at him, his own odd eyes both inquisitive and dismissive. Aberforth almost imagined that each eye represented a different thing, the dark eye was the inquisitive one, and the lighter eye was the dismissive one, but Aberforth shook the thought away immediately. Such flights of fancy fell to his late brother's purview, and certainly not under his nonexistent one.

"Come to gloat, have you?" Grindelwald inquired, his tone low and almost bored. A grimace wormed its way to the corner of Aberforth's mouth, though it was concealed by his thick beard.  
  
"No." Aberforth said, stepping forward, but only one step, bringing him much closer to the other man in the room, ( no not room at all, _cell_ was the correct description) than he cared to be.  
  
"Then what? What business does Albus Dumbledore's brother have with me?"  The grimace on Aberforth's lips increased, becoming apparent even from its spot beneath his beard.  
  
" _Albus Dumbledore's brother?_ Have you even cared to learn my name?" Aberforth inquired caustically, and not without a trace of humor.  
  
"Aberforth." Grindelwald said slowly and deliberately, letting the name roll off his tongue with a hint of mockery. "How could I forget the name of the man who despised me so many years ago?"  
  
"I still despise you." Aberforth retorted, and a laugh broke through Grindelwald's lips.  
  
"Still holding a grudge after all these years, Aberforth?" the old wizard asked.   
  
"Wouldn't you be?" Aberforth remarked, and took a step forward, bringing himself closer under the scrutiny of Grindelwald's odd eyes. "You killed my sister."  
  
"I did not. Or maybe I did. But no one can truly say who killed her, it could have been me, or you...or-"  
  
"Albus would never have hurt her." Aberforth interjected, his teeth gritted, and Grindelwald's eyes flashed with an anger that went as quickly as it had come.  
  
"Hurt her? No. Neglect her, yes." Grindelwald said, his face tightening as the anger leached from his eyes.  
  
"He would not have neglected her, or me, if it had not been for you." Aberforth snapped, and realized his mistake only after the words had passed his lips.   
  
"And there is the heart of the matter. You wanted to be coddled by your big brother, you couldn't bear sharing him." Grindelwald said.  
  
"I would have been willing to share him, if you had asked. But you didn't ask. You came, and stole his affections away, without so much as a by-your-leave to me or Ariana." Aberforth returned, and anger bled back into Grindewald's eyes and and stayed in them.   
  
"If you and your sister were foolish enough to guard his affections so little that they were stolen away, then they deserved to be taken from you." was Grindelwald's next response, and he was gratified to see loathing settle across Aberforth's face. But whatever words of hatred or disgust he expected Aberforth to spit, did not come.  
  
"It hardly matters now." Aberforth began in muted tone, gesturing with one hand as if he aimed to wipe away the words they had just exchanged. "He's dead."  
  
And that was worse. So very worse than the most hideous insult Aberforth could have conjured.

"That is not news to me." Grindelwald hissed. And it was not. The news of Albus Dumbledore's death had reach Numengard and Grindelwald's cell, Grindelwald knew quite well that Dumbledore was in his grave.  
  
"I suspected that. Still, I thought you might have wanted it confirmed." was Aberforth's response.  
  
"And I thank you for consideration in bringing me old news." Grindelwald flicked his hand, as if to motion to scare an annoying incsect. "See yourself out."  
  
"Do you not even care!" Aberforth exploded at Grindelwald's seeming indifference, his blue eyes, the Dumbledore eyes, flashing ragefully.  
  
Grindelwald's breath came quicker, a precursor to an outburst he tried vainly to hold back.  
  
"Care! Care?! I care for a great many things, you should be more specific." Grindelwald snapped, lurching off the cot where he was seated and rising to his full height. Aberforth nearly wailed in rage.  
  
"My brother! Did you care for him in any way besides what he could do for you and your evil dreams?! What did you give him that was worth more than his family?!"  
  
Grindelwald did not have to speak. He did not have to reply. He owed Aberforth Dumbledore nothing, not an explanation, not even his contempt. But there, lingering on the edge of his memory, were words that had been spoken to him at another time, so long ago, in the heat of a summer's day.

 _...Don't mind my brother, Gellert. He's a hard case, he has a head as thick as a brick, won't change his opinion, isn't very agreeable. But he's my brother, he means well, I try to explain it to him, it's the least I can do, but you have to be blunt with him, you'll never make him understand otherwise..."_  
  
It seemed he did owe Aberforth an explanation after all, if only for Albus's sake. But an explanation as Grindelwald saw fit to give.  
  
  
"Understanding. I gave him my understanding." Grindelwald stated simply. It was as truthful as he could be without revealing his hidden vulnerability, which belonged to one who was now no longer alive to claim it. And to doubly ensure it's hidden status, Grindelwald added a layer of barb to his words. "He had ideas, dreams, thoughts, so close to mine, it was as if we were one person at times. I understood him, he did not have to modify or hide his true self from me. What I gave him, or tried to, was something, you and your sister could never have. The freedom to fufill his worth."   
  


Aberforth was a sharp soul, sharp enough to catch the dual meaning behind what appeared to be a sentimental speech. He frowned, and Grindelwald continued, not bothering now to hide his true meaning behind emotional words.  
  
"You and your sister shackled Albus, you dragged him down as chains drag down a prisoner, he wanted to be rid of you, and how could one blame him? He was never meant to be your caretaker, or any caretaker for that matter. If it was not for you, his family, he would be at my side, and our lives would not have been spent languishing in a school and in a cell."  
  
Aberforth's face twisted beneath his beard, the perfect blend of rage and maddened hatred.  
  
"You are a monster." the old man growled, and disappeared in a flash and swirl of the air.  
  
Grindelwald sank back down onto his cot, staring blanking at the space where Aberforth had just occupied.  
  
"I tried telling him bluntly, Albus." Grindelwald said aloud to the empty room. "I tried."  
  
  
  
_...I tried..._

_...I'm sorry..._

 


End file.
